India Pakistan renew cricket rivalry after Mumbai attack

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By B D Narayankar Bangalore, Dec 24 (PTI) More than four years after their bilateral cricket ties snapped due to the Mumbai terror attack, India and Pakistan are set to slug it out in what promises to be a high-voltage limited-over series starting with the first Twenty20 international here tomorrow. The two-match T20 and three-match ODI series has been squeezed in between India's ongoing full series against the England cricket team, which has taken a break to go home for Christmas and New Year holidays. India and Pakistan, which last played a bilateral series in 2007, squared off in multi-national events several times after 2008 but for the first time, a Pakistani cricket team will be hosted for a series after the attacks. The Indian team is going through some testing times as they renew rivalry with Pakistan since the side has been struggling for success. India did well in the T20s against England after being humiliated in Tests but bowling remains a persistent headache for them in all the formats. The likes of Alex Hales, Michael Lumb and Eoin Morgan put the Indian attack on sword during the short T20 series and the Pakistan batsmen would be looking to exploit this weakness of the hosts. Except for a spirited show put up by Ashok Dinda, none of the Indian bowlers made an impact on the English batsmen. Parvinder Awana, Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla have all struggled to get wickets This may prompt skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to give a chance to either Abhimanyu Mithun or Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Surprisingly, Yuvraj Singh was the most successful bowler with six wickets and he also batted stupendously for India. India would want the Chandigarh boy to continue with his good touch against a very tricky opponent. PTI BDN AT PM CM